A recent study by a team of researchers from French food safety watchdog ANSES has revealed that glass bottles contain five to 50 times more microplastics than their plastic or metal counterparts.
The researchers themselves were surprised by their unexpected discovery. Their objective was to “investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact different containers can have.”
Roughly 60, 40, and 30 microplastics per liter were found in beer, lemonade, and soda drinks, respectively. Wine bottles, on the other hand, were found to have very few microplastics in them.
Indeed, most of us are aware of the scourge of plastic pollution. But what is not so well known is the potential harm microplastics can have on the human body. Studies have shown that these small plastic pieces are accumulating in critical human organs, including the brain, heart, and lungs. But how are these potentially dangerous microplastics being ingested, and does the rate of consumption really amount to the anecdotal claim of one credit card's worth of plastic every week?
Click through and learn more about how we are inadvertently eating and imbibing plastic waste.